Research Members of the Maya Research Program
Dr. Grace BascopéGrace Lloyd Bascopé(yxybyucmx@gmail.com ) received her Ph.D. in Medical Anthropology from Southern Methodist University with a specialization in Medical Anthropology. She has taught numerous physical and cultural anthropology courses at Texas Christian University and at the University of North Texas. She has conducted numerous studies in an indigenous community in the central part of the state of Yucatán, México for over 20 years and ran TCU and UNT ethnographic field schools there. She has also worked in Honduras, South America and Jamaica. In Yucatán she worked with David Freidel and the SMU/Selz Foundation when they excavated a portion of the large ancient city of Yaxunah. She is the author of The Household Ecology of Disease Transmission: Childhood Illness in a Yucatán Maya Community and several articles and chapters on her research in Yaxunah. She continues to focus on environmental issues and development in the Yaxunah area.
Dr. Timothy Beach
Dr. Tim Beach (beacht@georgetown.edu) is the Director for the Center for the Environment and Associate Professor of Geography at Georgetown University. Tim is known for his work with soils in the Maya area and Turkey. He and Sheryl Luzzader-Beach have been working with the soils and agricultural systems at Blue Creek since 2000.
Dr. Steve Bozarth
Dr. Steve Bozarth is a Research Professor of Geography at the University of Kansas. Dr. Bozarth has been studying microbotanical materials (pollen and phytoliths), agriculture and ritual at Blue Creek for the past decade (sbozarth@ku.edu).
Pieta Greaves
Pieta Greaves is currently the Conservation Coordinator for the Staffordshire Hoard conservation and research program based at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, UK. She was the laboratory director at Blue Creek from 2005 until 2008 and holds degrees in Archaeological Conservation from the University of Wales and a Masters in Architectural Conservation from Edinburgh University. (jindiana@hotmail.com).
Dr. Thomas Guderjan
Tom Guderjan is President of MRP and Director of the Blue Creek project and a faculty member at the University of Texas at Tyler. His recent book, The Nature of an Ancient Maya City: Resources, Interaction and Power at Blue Creek, Belize. University of Alabama Press (2007), summarizes much of the work done at Blue Creek. (mrpinquiries@gmail.com or mprinquiries@gmail.com)
Colleen Hanratty
Colleen Hanratty is a doctoral candidate at Southern Methodist University. She has worked with MRP for the past 19 years and is co-director of the Blue Creek Archaeological Project and a member of the board of directors. She has conducted archaeological research in the southeastern and southwestern USA, Mexico, Peru and Belize. Her doctoral research is on the collapse and abandonment of Blue Creek, Belize. (cchanratty@gmail.com or mrpquestions@gmail.com)
Samantha Krause
Sam holds an MA from Florida State University and is the Maya Research Program's GIS guru as well as an excavation supervisor. Samantha is currently enrolled in the PhD program at the University of Texas at Austin.
Dr. Sheryl Luzzader-Beach
Dr. Sheryl Luzzader-Beach is an Associate Professor of Geography at George Mason University. She and Tim Beach have been working with soils, hydrology, and agriculture at Blue Creek since 2000 (slbeach@gmu.edu).
Dr. Holly Moyes
Dr. Holly Moyes is Assistant Professor with the University of California at Merced, and holds her degrees from Florida Atlantic University (M.A.) and the State University of New York at Buffalo (Ph.D.). Her areas of specialization are Mesoamerica and the archaeology of religion, cave archaeology, sacred spaces, spatial analysis, the use of GIS in archaeology, the dynamics of complex societies, leadership strategies, and humans and the environment. She has conducted extensive fieldwork in Belize and the U.S. Southwest.
Dr. Alexander Parmington
Dr. Alexander Parmington is an Archaeologist at the Wurundjeri Tribe and Land Council and a Research Associate (Hon.) in the Archaeology Program at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. He has worked extensively in south-eastern Australia, in Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras and has contributed articles to several journals and organizations, including Mexicon, the Minesterio de Cultura y Deportes de Guatemala, the Instituto de Antropología e Historia de Guatemala, and the Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies. Alex has also recently authored a book entitled Space and Sculpture in the Classic Maya City (2011), published by Cambridge University Press.
Hannah Plumer
Hannah Plumer received her undergraduate degree from Ohio University and graduated with her masters degree focusing in bioarchaeology from Brandeis University in May 2011. She is currently enrolled in the PhD program at the University of Sheffield.
Justin Telepak
Justin Telepak has worked with MRP for 20yrs and is a co-director of the Blue Creek Archaeological Project and memberof the board of directors. When he's not patching holes, out gathering supplies or fixing flat tires, he can be found mapping with the survey crew or excavating with a field team. His background is in Sociology and Lutherie (guitar building). He is an artist, musician and woodworker living in Austin, Texas: http://indioarts.com (indioarts@gmail.com)
Robert Warden
Bob Warden is the Director of the Center for Architectural Heritage at Texas A& M and leads a digital recording project. Currently he is rendering 3D models of the Blue Creek project's excavations, artifacts, and caves. Bob has previously dealt with WWII battle sites in France, French cathedrals and Puebloan materials in Arizona.
Marc Wolf
Marc Wolfe, our project surveyor, has spent many years mapping Maya sites in Belize, Guatemala and Mexico. Currently he is mapping the sites of Xnoha, Nojol Nah and Grey Fox. (gwe@mindspring.com).
MRP Board of Directors
Grace Bascopé, Ph.D. (Dallas, Texas)Bill Collins (Long Beach, California) -- Emeritus
Kim Cox (Corpus Christi, Texas)
C. Gerald Emanuelson (Duluth, Minnesota)
Thomas H. Guderjan, Ph.D. (Tyler, Texas)
C. Colleen Hanratty (Tyler, Texas)
Bob Hibschman (Eugene, Oregon)
Dale Pastrana (El Paso, Texas) -- Emeritus
Keith Peacock, Ph.D. (Williamsburg, Virginia)
Justin Telpak (Austin, Texas)
Blue Creek Project Staff
Dr. Steve Bozarth, University of KansasDr. Tim Beach, Georgetown University
Pieta Greaves, University of Cardiff
Dr. Thomas Guderjan, University of Texas at Tyler, Maya Research Program
Colleen Hanratty, Southern Methodist University
Dr. Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach, George Mason University
Greg Mastropietro, SWCA Environmental Consultants
Kent Mead, SWCA Environmental Consultants
Dr. Holly Moyes, University of California, Merced
Dr. Alexander Parmington, Archaeologist at the Wurundjeri Tribe and Land Council, Australia
Hannah Plumer, University of Sheffield
Stephen Reichardt, Archaeological Research Institute, Arizona State University
Justin Telepak, Austin, Texas
Bob Warden, Texas A&M University
Mark Wolf
Blue Creek Support Staff
Margaretha Dyck - Camp CookBen Dyck - Camp Maintenance